But you gave up the sky
by the black knight
Summary: Foaly meets up with an old friend. Stories are exchanged, and memories are shared. AF HP Crossover. Winner of Best Crossover for the 20012005 Orion Awards.


AN: This is a crossover fic between Harry Potter and Artemis Fowl. More specifically, it deals with Firenze and Foaly. In my story, Firenze and Foaly are cousins, fourteen times removed, and the Harry Potter centaurs and the Artemis Fowl centaurs are linked, if you hadn't surmised this already. Also, in this fic, the underground centaurs are not fairies, and they are a goodly sized bigger than the People. (Colfer never mentioned otherwise, though the implication that they were smallish was there, he never actually said they were fairy-sized).

This fic was removed, no thanks to somebody who reported usage of word 'jackass'. Whoop dee do. Bring in the cops! Don't let any kids see this! The horror!

Anyway, so could those who have reviewed this do so once mor, if it is not too much trouble? Thanks a lot.

But you gave up the sky

Foaly noted the date on his fairy calendar. He strolled towards Root's office with the air of one intent of getting what he wanted, regardless of any objections he may or may not receive.

"Hey, Root, I'll need a pass to go aboveground," Foaly announced casually upon opening the door to Root's office, revealing a red-faced Julius lighting a fungus cigar.

Root guiltily dropped the cigar (he had promised his mother to go easy on the stuff) before remembering himself. He managed to raise an eyebrow. "Why?" He asked, a hint of suspicion in his voice. Foaly rarely left his Ops Booth, much less ventured aboveground.

"I need to perform the Ritual," Foaly lied glibly.

"The Ritual?" Root snorted. "You don't have any magic, pony-boy, remember? You need a medic to cure a bum boil."

__

Charming, thought Foaly. That was Root for you, blunt and to the point. He rolled his eyes. "The Ritual is not just about magic, Julius. It's a renewal of the mind and soul of the all the People, magical or not. If you were maybe a tad sharper you would have known that," Foaly said with asperity.

"Fine, fine. Go whine about your spiritual mumbo jumbo aboveground," Root gave up, exasperated. He issued a pass and handed it to the centaur grumpily.

"Your solicitousness overwhelms me, Julius," Foaly replied sarcastically. And before Root could prepare a retort or threaten to make budget cuts over the Julius remark, he trotted out Root's office and headed for a shuttle.

As the shuttle made its way aboveground, Foaly reflected on his lie. _A necessary evil_, he told himself. Root was right; he _didn't_ need to perform the Ritual. But he needed a convenient excuse to go aboveground, and the Ritual came in handy.

When the shuttle arrived Foaly got off and headed for the nearest fairy fort. He put on a suit, his own invention, of course. It would automatically shield a fairy if he or she ran out of magic. _Or if he wasn't a fairy and had no magic in the first place_, he added silently. Specially designed to fit him, what with his extra size and four legs. He didn't bother to put on a set of Hummingbirds. He was too big, and he didn't have far to go anyway.

He trudged to the selected meeting point; a charred oak stump stuck by lightning. Firenze was waiting for him. Foaly unshielded. Firenze didn't need to shield in the first place. The _Rianthus_ had ways of making themselves obscure as to be undetected.

Foaly idly noted the difference in size between the both of them. Foaly was a veritable giant among the People, but aeons spent underground had slowly reduced the size of the underground centaurs due to lack of fresh air and proper nourishment. He stood at four feet five inches, much taller than the average fairy, but still dwarfed by one of the _Rianthus_, the centaurs who remained aboveground.

"My greetings, brethren Firenze Stargazer, descendant of Nyrius the Mystic," Foaly said formally.

"And in turn, brethren Foaly Shadowsbane, descendant of Diatris the Wise." Firenze returned the ancient benediction.

"How goes it with you, cousin?" Foaly inquired.

Firenze sighed. "Not well, I am afraid. Bane and his council have excommunicated me and declared me a _criotus fey_ for teaching in Hogwarts."

"_Criotus fey_?" Gasped Foaly incredulously. "A grand traitor to the centaurs? For becoming a schoolteacher? Is he out of his mind?"

"On second thought, don't answer that," Foaly added as an afterthought wryly.

"Bane has viewed my favour to Dumbledore as a grave insult to the centaurs," Firenze said in that quiet voice of his. "He feels I am being subservient to humans and demoting centaurs in the public eye. I am no longer considered one of them."

Foaly's gaze shifted to the hoof shaped bruise on Firenze's chest. Firenze's eyes followed his line of sight.

"That was a memento of Bane's unhappiness with my decision. It would have went further, if not for Hagrid's intervention," Firenze explained calmly, as though discussing the weather.

"What a jackass," muttered Foaly. "No pun intended," he said with a measure of irony.

"How do you fare, cousin?" Firenze changed the topic.

"I am all right, I suppose. I miss the surface, though. Centaurs weren't meant to live underground."

"No sentient creature was meant to live underground, Foaly," Firenze said sadly.

Foaly nodded mutely.

"How does it go with the rest of our kin?" Firenze asked.

Foaly sighed. "Not well. As I said, centaurs find it difficult to live underground. Without the feel of grass under our hooves, without the fresh air blowing on our face, without the sky to look at every night…What makes a centaur a centaur? We find it hard to exist like this. Size is only one of the ways we are being diminished. Our numbers are dwindling as well," he said, a hint of pain tugging at his delicate features.

"Ah," Firenze said with deep sadness. "We and the fair folk have lost much due to the Muggles and their avaricious way."

"Muggles? You mean Mud Men." Foaly corrected automatically.

"Same difference," Firenze shrugged.

"The People are peaceful. They would not, no, could not rouse themselves to war, not even for the surface." Foaly said. "They preferred to find new homes beneath the ground than to confront the Mud Men. Sometimes I wonder if they did the right thing." He sighed.

"And the _Exhentia _followed them."

"Yes, one of the ancient tribes of centaurs. My descendants. The _Rianthus_ chose to follow the wizards instead." Foaly said.

"The Muggles threatened our very existence. We, the Rianthus centaurs, chose not to go to battle with them. We were- are- not warlike enough for that. We chose to seek refuge with the mage crafters instead."

"We tossed our lot in with the People, and you tossed your lot in with the wizards." Foaly summarised succinctly.

"Yes. Gryffindor was very kind." Firenze reflected.

"Frond showed us the same courtesy," replied Foaly.

There was a brief silence.

" It is ironic that the People know nothing of the wizards, and vice versa." Firenze remarked finally.

"And of course, the Mud Men know of neither," Foaly added. "At least, they know of neither now that the Fowl case is done and dusted."

"It was still continuing?" Firenze queried diffidently.

Foaly snorted. "That Fowl kid was too sharp for his own good. The important thing is that it's over. Fowl and his cronies will never regain his memories," he said, thought a waver in his voice indicated he was not quite as sure as his statement implied, and his face revealed a tinge of doubt.

"Do the People know you are not of their kind?" Firenze asked tactfully.

"No, they don't. We have been around for so long that they assume we are one of them." Foaly said.

"I cannot help but ask, which tribe of centaurs fared better? Those who trusted their fate to the wizards, or those who chose to follow the People?" Firenze wondered aloud.

"Who knows?" Foaly replied.

"Our tribe has to face discrimination among large sections of the magical community. We are reduced to living in the forest while the wizards dwell pompously in their castles. We are looked down upon as second class citizens, and classified as mere beasts. No wonder Bane is so uptight about the honour of the centaurs, or rather, the lack of it," Firenze said sadly.

"Yes. The People, on the other hand, have been very kind. They accept us as one of them, without prejudice, in spite of the differences," Foaly said.

"But you gave up the sky," Firenze said softly.

"Yes," Foaly echoed regretfully. "Yes, we did."

"I believe all the stigma, all the condescension, all the humiliation would be worth it, if we could only have the sky." Firenze continued quietly.

Foaly gazed up at the wide expanse of space, his eyes drinking in the beauty that he is denied.

"Maybe," he whispered. "Maybe."

There was a long silence, broken only by the song of crickets and the hooting of owls.

"I must go. I have stayed too long as it is. It has been a pleasure, cousin," Firenze said abruptly.

"I shall see you next year, at the same date, then," Foaly stated.

"Yes." Firenze took a small blade and added another almost invisible mark on the stump of the oak. "Goodbye, cousin," he said quietly.

"Well be you, Firenze." Foaly said the customary farewell.

"And the same, Foaly," Firenze replied.

As Foaly watched the departing figure, he too turned and walked away slowly. He entered the fairy fort upon reaching the designated clump of bushes, pausing only to gaze at the sky longingly for one last time, noting in passing that Mars was bright tonight.

Foaly shouldered his way past the throng in the shuttle port as he made his way back to the Police Plaza and his Ops Booth.

An obnoxious gnome saw him unboarding, noted his LEP technician badge, and stepped up to confront him. He pompously stopped the much bigger Foaly in his tracks.

"How come you LEP guys get to go topside? What's so special about you?" He asked aggressively.

Foaly, somewhat startled, quickly rattled off the first thing that came to his mind. "Police business," he replied shortly.

The gnome scratched his massive behind. "I hear you LEP guys make up your 'police business' just to get a look at the sky, that's what I hear," he said, his defiant face fixed in a belligerent glare at Foaly's face.

"Maybe," replied Foaly softly, his eyes far away. "Maybe."


End file.
